The Start Network's Migration Emergency Response Fund's (MERF) Emergency Coordinator, Melina Larson, and Start Fund MEAL office, Micheala Larson, have been in Morocco visiting Humanity & Inclusion's project funded by the MERF. In this blog post Melina gives her first-hand account of their project on the ground.
Every year on the 20th of June, World Refugee Day is used to recognise and commemorate the strength, courage and perseverance of refugees. It is important to recognise the difficulties that refugees face, and work towards a world where all refugees receive an education, have somewhere safe to live alongside accessibility to work so they can support their families. However, the term refugee is used to categorise people on the move and with that comes a distinct definition of the term ‘migrant’.
Every year on the 20th of June, World Refugee Day marks the strength, courage and perseverance of refugees. It is important to recognise the difficulties that refugees face, and work towards a world where all refugees have accessibility to assistance and protection. So, how does the Start Network respond to the needs of refugees and migrants?
Melina joined the Start Network in 2016. Before this she had been working with the International Rescue Committee in Mali as their grants manager, and this is where she had her first experience with the Start Network through two initiatives. The first was a Start Fund Alert (Alert 36) in response to internal displacement and the second was Start Response Ebola Preparedness Programme. Both these introduced Melina to very different ways of working with rapid and collaborative decision-making processes and implementation in just 45 days. Soon after, she joined the Start Network as a Start Fund Programme Officer establishing the Start Fund Regional Advisor roles as well as leading on a growing number of alerts, before moving to the Migration Emergency Response Fund (MERF) in 2018 first as the Regional Coordinator based out of Tunis and then as the Programme Manager. She joined MERF as it started its second phase and here reflects on some of the learnings along the way.
